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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24671968">bloodlines</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Trash224/pseuds/Fandom_Trash224'>Fandom_Trash224</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Batfam Beyond AU [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Batman Beyond, DCU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Conversations, Family, Family Drama, Gen, I suppose, a bit of, idk how to tag this so thats what ur getting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:00:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,442</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24671968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Trash224/pseuds/Fandom_Trash224</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>bruce makes a discovery. damian finds out about it as well.</p>
<p>questionable decisions are made.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bruce Wayne &amp; Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Batfam Beyond AU [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>121</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>bloodlines</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The cave was uncharacteristically quiet as Damian entered it, the only sounds that the man could hear being the various bats that helped the place live up to its name. True, it would be at least another hour or so before Duke would be back from patrol, but it was strange that Damian couldn’t hear the distant sounds of Terry or Cass training, or the soft conversations between any visiting family, or even the soft noises of the keys on the computer being tapped. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was something wrong, and it had Damian on edge. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Father?” Damian called out as he approached the computer, and he was greeted by a soft grunt. Bruce turned around in the chair, the motion vaguely reminding Damian of one of those villains from the movies his brothers had forced him to watch growing up. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Damian,” Bruce began, and Damian may not have been Cass, but he liked to think he could read his father’s body language. Body language that was currently screaming “something’s off, but I’m trying to hide my discomfort for your sake”.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s wrong? Has something happened?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” a pause. “Yes. It’s… </span>
  <em>
    <span>complicated</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh no. Anybody who had ever been in the superhero community always learned to hate and fear that word, and Damian had more-or-less been raised for the latter half of his life in it. If he hadn’t already been on edge before, he certainly was now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What happened?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His father opened his mouth, likely in an attempt to stave off Damian’s questions, but then he sighed and said, “After the incident with Inque, I had decided to run Terry’s bloodwork to ensure that we would be prepared for any sort of… </span>
  <em>
    <span>complications</span>
  </em>
  <span> with other villains in the future.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What did you find?” Damian asked, taking a step towards the computer, turning his father’s chair so the two of them could look at the monitor together as he did. “What’s wrong with Terrence?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nothing’s wrong,” Bruce said softly, “Not in the normal sense of the word--”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Father</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Damian warned, not willing to put up with his dancing around the subject. Bruce sighed again, giving a side glance to Damian as he pressed a button on the keyboard, bringing up a readout of Terry’s basic genetic makeup. Damian’s eyes skimmed it almost frantically, and for several moments, he didn’t notice what was wrong.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bruce must’ve noticed, because then, he pulled up another two windows beside it. These two were genetic readouts for both Damian and his father, and after nearly a minute of the younger man’s eyes looking between the three of them, Damian’s blood ran cold.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Terry’s DNA wasn’t an </span>
  <em>
    <span>exact</span>
  </em>
  <span> match to either of them, so there was no cloning going on— thank </span>
  <em>
    <span>goodness</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Damian wasn’t sure if he would’ve been able to deal with </span>
  <em>
    <span>that—</span>
  </em>
  <span> but there was certainly enough in common between Terry and Bruce’s DNA for the computer to decide that there was a 99% chance that Terry McGinnis was Bruce’s son. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which meant that Terry McGinnis was Damian’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>half-brother</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That couldn’t have been right. Terry had been born between Warren and Mary McGinnis, they hadn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>known</span>
  </em>
  <span> the family before the night that Terry ended up saving Bruce’s life. There was no way that Terry could’ve been related to them. It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>impossible</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And yet, there it was, clear as day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damian stared at the screen, eyes wide. His mind had all but stuttered to a halt, and he was almost ninety percent sure his heart had </span>
  <em>
    <span>stopped</span>
  </em>
  <span> for a moment. Bruce placed a steadying hand on his arm, and Damian allowed himself to breathe again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How?” Damian’s voice shook with emotions, though he wasn’t entirely sure which ones they were. He felt the familiar burn of anger in the pit of his stomach, but there was an overall feeling of shocked numbness that kept that rage tempered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know yet,” Bruce said quietly, turning the screen off. “But I have a feeling what was left of our friends at Cadmus had something to do with it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Cadmus was dismantled </span>
  <em>
    <span>years</span>
  </em>
  <span> before Terrence was born, how did-- </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why</span>
  </em>
  <span> did they do this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m looking into it.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why bother telling me if you don’t have all the information yet?” His father was not the type of man to go into something with only half the facts.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You had a right to know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As if that explained everything. Damian took another breath, still shaky, but not as bad as it had been before. “And the others? Do they know yet?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” Bruce sat back in his chair, steepling his fingers together. “But they will eventually. You know Barbara will probably find the file on her own, and neither of us could keep a secret from Cass if we tried. After they know, it’s only a matter of time before the rest do, too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about Terrence?” A very loud silence followed the question. As the numbness receded from his bones, his anger flared, and he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “You can’t be serious. Does he not have a right to know who his true father is?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Warren </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>his true father,” Bruce said evenly, calmly, as if it made sense. The worst part was that it </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span>. “You and I both know blood doesn’t mean everything.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damian straightened his back slightly. Yes, he knew that, but…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t… feel as though we have the </span>
  <em>
    <span>right</span>
  </em>
  <span> to keep it from him. This doesn’t sit well with me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Me either, but it’s probably for the best for Terry,” Bruce stood up slowly, turning to face Damian. “He’s already been through a lot just over the past few weeks. He doesn’t need to have his whole world shattered again. Wait until the dust settles a bit, then we’ll see about telling him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do we know the </span>
  <em>
    <span>others</span>
  </em>
  <span> won’t tell him?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll ask them to keep it quiet, at least for a bit. If they tell him, they tell him, but I’m hoping they’ll at least understand where we’re coming from.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damian made a soft noise of uncertainty, but didn’t push it any further, instead just leaning forward against the console of the computer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Considering what Damian knew about Terry, it almost made </span>
  <em>
    <span>sense</span>
  </em>
  <span> for Terry to be someone else’s child. His mother had red hair, and his father had brown. Both of their eyes were some shade of brown. Terry had black hair and blue eyes. Of course, there were </span>
  <em>
    <span>plenty</span>
  </em>
  <span> of people like that in Gotham, so it hadn’t automatically </span>
  <em>
    <span>meant</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Terry was Bruce’s other son, but still… </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Damian?” his father’s voice was as gentle as the hand being placed up on Damian’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He opened his mouth to respond, but instead let out a soft laugh as he realized what he had been about to say. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m fine, father</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s… There were </span>
  <em>
    <span>many</span>
  </em>
  <span> things I had been expecting when you said something had happened. I will admit, </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> wasn’t among them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Believe me, I was pretty shocked to see the results, too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I imagine you were,” Damian said with another soft laugh, “At least you’re already somewhat familiar with surprise children.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That got a chuckle out of Bruce, and Damian could almost hear his elder brothers’ laughter as well. It brought a smile to his face, but the matter of Terry’s heritage still pressed at the back of Damian’s mind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If Terrence finds out on his own…,” Damian began quietly, smile melting into a concerned frown. “I can’t imagine he would react well.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, he wouldn’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Terrence may be young, but he is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> a fool. He’s going to find out sooner or later--”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” his father’s voice is gruff and tired, and it reminded Damian of back when his father had still been Batman. After a long night of leads going nowhere and frustrating situations. “I’ve been trying to figure out the best course of action ever since I found out. Right now, it’s probably best if we keep it </span>
  <em>
    <span>quiet</span>
  </em>
  <span>, at least until things have settled somewhat and we actually have an </span>
  <em>
    <span>idea</span>
  </em>
  <span> on how to approach the subject.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damian looked his father in the eyes, finding a tired weariness within them, one that came with the territory of fatherhood more than heroics, and Damian found himself taking a deep breath and letting it go. Out of the two of them, Bruce had more experience, and even then he was flying blind. Better to land and figure things out than rush into the oncoming storm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright,” Damian said, even as the thought of hiding something like this from the young Batman made his mouth taste sour. “I suppose it’s a start.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>check me out on tumblr!</p>
<p>dc: gothamhell.tumblr.com<br/>main: fandom-trash224.tumblr.com</p></blockquote></div></div>
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